Viererkette

About Viererkette

Viererkette is a daily word puzzle on spiegel.de, and the page says openly that it is inspired by the New York Times game Connections.

Each puzzle shows 16 German terms. You pick four you think belong together and confirm the choice. If you are right, the group is coloured, its link is explained and it leaves the board. If three of your four fit, the game tells you you are one away; if two or none fit, it says there is no match. Each wrong try costs five points, and the twentieth wrong try ends the game. The groups are colour coded by difficulty: green easy, yellow medium, red hard and purple the trickiest.

The links vary. Sometimes the answer lies in what the words mean, sometimes in single syllables or in hints hidden inside the terms, and some words are there to lead you the wrong way. A new puzzle appears every day at midnight. Settings offer a dark mode and larger or smaller text.

Viererkette is part of SPIEGEL Plus, and the page says it is free to play during the start phase. With a SPIEGEL Plus subscription you get personal statistics and can play earlier puzzles from the calendar. It suits German speakers who play Connections and want the same kind of puzzle in their language.

How to play Viererkette

1. Look over the 16 terms and look for four that share a link.
2. Select the four terms and press to confirm your choice.
3. If the group is right it is coloured and explained; if three fit you are told you are one away.
4. Keep going until all four groups are found, avoiding wrong tries that cost points.

Tips

• Look inside the words: some groups are built on syllables or hidden words, not meaning.
• Expect red herrings: the page warns that some words are there to lead you the wrong way.
• Solve the group you are surest of first to shrink the board.

Questions